Red Sox @ Tigers Preview

What a way to start the season. After a historically terrible end to last season the Red Sox get to travel to Detroit to face the best pitcher in baseball (Verlander), and maybe the best duo of hitters in the league (Cabrera/Fielder).

This will be the 2nd time that Lester is the Red Sox opening day starter. He is 0-2 with a 5.89 ERA, which looks very similar to that 5.40 ERA he had in September last year. Still, that was then and this is now. Lester was awesome in April last year. The big thing for Lester will be control. He needs to keep that pitch count down. Usually in the beginning of the year managers really watch pitch counts, so the Sox really don't need one of those outings where Lester pitches 100 pitches in 5 innings.

That could be tough against, in my opinion, the best lineup in the AL. There are a bunch of guys that can hit, and not just hit, but hit the long ball. Ok, so the Tigers have the advantage in pitching, and hitting, so what do the Sox have. Well, they should be much better defensively. The Tigers have converted Cabrera back to 3rd, and I am interest to see how that goes since he is about 50 pounds heavier then the last time he played there. Peralta has poor range too, so that left side could see a lot of balls get through.

Verlander is 3-2 against the Red Sox in his career with a 3.22 ERA. The good news is that the Sox do have a couple guys that have hit him well in the past. Ortiz has a .278 batting average against him and 2 HRs in 18 at bats, and Youk/Aviles both have a batting average of .300 against him.

Here are the lineups for today...

RED SOX LINEUP

Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Youkilis, 3B
Sweeney, RF
Ross, LF
Saltalamacchia, C
Aviles, SS

Lester, SP

TIGERS LINEUP

Jackson, CF
Boesch, RF
Cabrera, 3B
Fielder, 1B
Young, LF
Raburn, DH
Peralta, SS
Avila, C
Santiago, 2B

Verlander, SP

I can't pick against the Red Sox the first game of the year, so....

Red Sox win 5-4
Player of the Game: Gonzalez
Game starts at 1:05pm